The questions that arrive after the box does.
Finding a supplier
Search for welding gas or industrial gas in your city. Every metropolitan area has several and they handle small repeat accounts routinely.
Set the account up the same day you order the balloon. Gas suppliers keep business hours, and a Saturday event plus a Friday afternoon realisation is the classic failure.
Judging when to top off
Use how the balloon looks rather than a calendar, and judge it in the warm part of the day.
Cold makes gas contract, so a winter morning balloon looks soft and firms up by afternoon. Topping it up at dawn is how people end up over-filling it by noon.
The wind rule
Over 25 miles per hour in the forecast, bring it in. Not when the wind arrives.
Wind is what takes balloons. Weather loss is not covered by our warranty or anybody else’s, and it is entirely avoidable. Customers who follow this report fourteen years.
Height and airspace
Below 150 feet above ground the FAA is not involved. We fly at 120 feet, deliberately under that line.
Within five miles of controlled airspace, call the local tower and ask. In forty years we have never been refused. Johnny Mulder, who runs the company, holds an FAA commercial pilot certificate.
Indoors
Fifteen feet of clear ceiling for a 13-foot blimp. A sandbag or booth tie-off holds it.
One fill covers a three-day show. Ask the venue about helium rules specifically; some halls restrict it regardless of ceiling height, usually because of the cost of retrieving loose balloons from the roof structure.
More at arizonaballoon.com.